Apparatus for collecting scattered logs



(No Model.)

A. McDOUG ALL.

APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING SUATTERED LOGS.

No. 312,486. Patented Feb. 17, 1885.

UNITED STATES ALEXANDER MCDOUGALL,

PATENT OFFICE.

OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING SCATTERED LOGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part. of Letters Patent No. 312,486, datedFebruary 1'7, 1 885.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER McDon- GALL, of Duluth, in the county ofSt. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Methods of and Apparatus for Collecting Scattered Logs;and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exactdescription of the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Saw-logs are usually moved from one point to another on lakes in raftsinclosed by other logs connected together at their ends, and called aboom. In moving such booms they are frequently broken, commonly byviolent winds and high waves, and then the logs are driven to and uponthe leeward shore and rolled up and lodged upon the same by the wavesand scattered over a considerable extent, the logs of each raft beingusually landedin proximity to each other. The collecting of suchscattered logs is usually accomplished by crews of men in calm weatheror with a light breeze off shore, who with hand implements of differentkinds, or with teams, get the logs off the shore and secure them insmall rafts and move these rafts along the shores until a sufficientnumber of the logs are collected, when the logs are made into suitablerafts and inclosed in a boom made from a portion of the logs. If thewind is to ward the shore, the logs are apt to be driven back and ashoreagain, and if the wind is off shore the logs are aptto escapealtogether, and in any event it is expensive and difficult to collectand secure all the logs in this way.

My invention is intended to obviate these difficulties; and it consistsin the apparatus employed, capable of use whatever the direction of thewind, unless it is violent, as will be more fully explained,andillustrated in the accompanying drawing, which represents the apparatusemployed.

A represents a boat with a powerful steamengine, 13, which drives awinch or windlass,

C, and also may be connected with a propeller-shaft to move the boat.This boat has also avery heavy anchor, D. To the stern of the boat isfastened a boom, E.

F represents the lake, G the shore-line,

Application filed January 5, 1883. (No model.)

and H the saw-logs, and I a suitable rope for connection to the logs bysuitable hooks, K, supplied with a disengaging or tripping line arrangedin usual form. This boat A is preferabl y made quite shallow, so as toallow more con venient approach toward the shore, and in such caseshould have a center-board to afford more steadiness in position withside winds, and a vessel of this character of about seventyfive tonsburden would be found very suitable; or the winch or windlass C, of thekind used on dock-hoisters or pile drivers, could be placed upon thedeck of atug or scow which had suflicient steam-power, or was towed, andwas furnished with a very heavy anchor or anchors, sufficient to holdthe vessel in position while the winch was drawing a log off the land.The boat A being propelled by her steampower,with the boom towingastern,is brought to an anchor opposite the shore where the sawlogs arescattered at such a distance that when the boom is separated at a pointtoward the shore the divided ends may be extended up and down the shorea considerable space, as shown in the drawing, and such ends secured tothe shore by any ordinary appropriate means. The rope I is then taken tothe shore and attached to a log, and, the engine being started, the logis pulled ofi into the water, the hooks are disengaged by thetripping-line L, and the log, impelled by the usual shorecurrent, floatsinto a bend in the boom, as shown in the drawing. This use of the ropeand the winch is continued until all the logs between the extremities ofthe boom are drawn into it. These logs then lying within the boom arereadily collected together and formed and secured into a suitable raft,which may be attached to the boat. The engine and winch IO seas.

always flows along the shores of 1akes,the logs drawn off the shoresettle into one side of the boom and are detained against the force of aconsiderable wind blowing toward the shore or along the shore. If thewind blows off the shore, then the vessel itself, as well as the boom,prevents the escape of logs.

It is evident that this system and apparatus are equally applicableto'shores of rivers and It also evident that where the distance to whichthe collected logs are to be moved is small or the weather very fine andcalm the making up of the collected logs into rafts may be dispensedwith.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is In anapparatus for collecting scattered logs, the combination, with a boatprovided with a flexible inclosing boom, of a windlass secured to saidboat and connected therewith one end of aline, the other end thereofextending to the logs on the shore, whereby said logs are drawn into thewater and within the inclosing boom, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature 25 in presence of twowitnesses.

ALEXANDER MODOUGALL.

l/Vitnesses:

CHAS. R. HAINES, FRED. F. HUNTRESS.

